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A platter built around fragrant coconut and lemongrass rice, served with a fiery sambal of dried anchovies and rehydrated chillies, then ringed with hard-boiled egg, sliced cucumber and fried peanuts. The sambal does most of the heavy lifting, sweet, sour, smoky and hot. The rice itself is gentle, designed to be a calming counterpoint to everything else on the plate.
Beef parboils briefly with stock cube and onion to make a quick stock. Smoked fish soaks in hot water and is flaked. Fresh okra is chopped very fine (or grated). Palm oil heats; chopped onion, garlic and Scotch bonnet pepper soften. Stock and meat go in; simmers for 5 minutes. Smoked fish, ground crayfish and iru join. Salt to season. Then the okra goes in and cooks just 5 minutes, barely, to keep the bright green colour and the unmistakable slippery thickness. Served over rice or with fufu.
Short-grain Japanese rice (sushi rice) is rinsed several times until the water runs clear, then cooked with slightly less water than for regular rice (so each grain stays separate-but-sticky). Cooled slightly to warm (not hot, hands burn; not cold, rice doesn't compress). Filling options prepare: umeboshi (sour pickled plum, sold whole or paste); salt-grilled salmon flaked; tinned tuna mixed with mayo and a pinch of soy. Hands wet with water, dust with salt, take a generous handful of rice, press a thumb-dent in the centre, drop a teaspoon of filling, fold the rice over to enclose, press into a triangular shape with the palms. Wrap each ball with a small strip of nori at the base.
A sofrito of onion, garlic and tomato is built in the paella pan, then bomba rice goes in and absorbs warm fish stock with saffron. Squid and white fish go in early; prawns, mussels and clams are nestled in for the last 10 minutes so they steam open without overcooking.
Australia's pub-menu fish, the one you order on a hot summer afternoon at a beachside bistro and follow with a cold glass of something white. The trick to crispy-skin barramundi is the trick to crispy-skin anything: very dry fillets, very hot oil, salt on the skin, fish pressed flat into the pan for the first thirty seconds, and the patience to leave it alone until the flesh is opaque most of the way through before you flip. Once you turn it, the second side needs only a minute. While the fish rests on a plate you make a brown butter, lemon and caper sauce in the same pan in the time it takes the fillets to settle. Sea bass, snapper or yellowtail kingfish all stand in beautifully if barramundi isn't on the slab. Plated with the crisp side up so every diner sees the skin, lemon and parsley scattered over, a glass of cold riesling on the table.
Bone-in goat (or chicken or catfish, fish takes much less time) simmers in lightly salted water with onion, garlic, ginger, scotch bonnet and the pepper-soup spice mix for 75 minutes until tender. Crayfish (ground dried shrimp) and stock cube go in for depth. Scent leaf (Nigerian basil) or basil leaves and chopped onion finish at the table.
Prik king paste fries hard in oil until aromatic and the oil splits. Thinly sliced pork (or chicken) joins; sears for 4 minutes. Green beans (snake beans, French beans or fine green beans) go in for 5 minutes; fish sauce, palm sugar and torn kaffir lime leaves finish. Served over jasmine rice with fresh herbs.
A whole fish is rubbed with salt, lemon, garlic and olive oil inside and out. While it rests, a sauce of tahini, lemon juice, water, garlic and chopped fresh coriander whisks together, adjusted with more water until the texture of pourable double cream. Diced red onion, Aleppo pepper, cumin and a pinch of cayenne fry briefly in olive oil. The tahini sauce stirs in; warms gently to a velvety consistency. The fish nestles on top in an oven dish; the sauce surrounds it; covered with foil; baked for 20 minutes; uncovered another 5-10 minutes. Topped with toasted pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and extra coriander at the table.
A shellfish gumbo, lighter than the full Cajun "everything" version but built on the same foundations - a deep roux, the holy trinity of onion, celery and sweet pepper, and a slow-simmered broth that ties everything together. You cook a roux in oil until it goes to a peanut-butter brown (lighter than the full-Cajun chocolate roux but darker than blond), then soften the trinity in it before stock and herbs go in to build the soup. Mussels, prawns and crab go in towards the end and cook just briefly so they stay tender. A modern touch of fresh chilli lifts the heat across the back. Eaten over white rice in deep bowls, with hot sauce on the table and crusty bread to mop the last of the broth.
The trinity (onion, celery, green pepper) softens in butter; garlic, Creole seasoning and herbs join. Tomato paste deepens; chopped tomatoes and stock loosen; the lot simmers for 20 minutes into a thick sauce. Prawns drop in at the end and cook for 3 minutes, pink and just-set. Hot sauce, lemon and parsley to finish.
Pork ribs simmer with onion, tomato and tamarind to build broth and tartness. Vegetables go in by cooking time: hardy ones early (taro, daikon), tender ones late (beans, water spinach). Fish sauce seasons; chilli gives optional heat. Served with rice.
This is a dramatic dish sure to earn you compliments. Moderately easy to make but requiring organisation and some Chinese cooking experience. The key to success is that both the prawn sauce mixture and rice cake must be fairly hot, this creates a dramatic, theatrical sizzle when they combine. A showstopping presentation perfect for entertaining.
A thin batter is whisked from plain flour, dashi (Japanese stock), eggs, a touch of soy and mirin, salt, like a thin pancake batter. The takoyaki pan (cast-iron or non-stick with half-spherical dimples) heats; each dimple oils with vegetable oil. Batter fills each dimple plus the connecting flat surface (overflow is intentional). A small piece of pre-cooked octopus, a pinch of pickled red ginger, a few cubes of tempura crumbs (tenkasu) and a sprinkle of spring onion drop into each dimple. As the bottom sets, a sharp wooden skewer rotates each ball: scrape the overflow from around each, fold it into the bottom, twist 90° to expose the wet top, allow it to set, twist another 90°, eventually achieving a complete sphere. Cooked until golden all around. The balls are plated and drizzled with takoyaki sauce and mayo, then scattered with bonito flakes and aonori.
Skin-on salmon fillets are seared skin-side down to crisp, flipped briefly, then bathed in a four-ingredient teriyaki glaze that reduces to a glossy lacquer. The pan-sear gives texture; the glaze gives shine and savoury sweetness.
The fish is scored and stuffed with rof, a fragrant paste of parsley, garlic, chilli and stock cube. It poaches in a tomato-and-fish-sauce broth alongside hardy vegetables. The fish and veg come out, broken rice goes in to absorb every drop of flavoured liquid until it turns deep brick-red. The whole thing is plated together in one mound: stained rice underneath, fish and vegetables on top.
Pad thai began as a 1930s government-promoted national dish during a campaign to reduce rice consumption, and has since become Thailand's best-known noodle export. The success of any version comes down to the sauce: equal parts fish sauce, tamarind and palm sugar, with a spoonful of finely chopped pickled radish for backbone. Once the sauce is mixed the wok work is fast, with soft rice noodles, chicken, tofu, dried shrimp and egg joining in quick succession before the dish is finished with peanuts, chives, lime and chilli at the table.
Cylindrical rice cakes (refrigerated or frozen) soak for 10-30 minutes if dry/firm. Stock (anchovy-kelp dashi or water) simmers with gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, soy sauce to make the spicy red sauce. Rice cakes go in; cook for 8-10 minutes until softened and the sauce thickens to a glaze. Fish cakes and boiled egg join in the last 5 minutes. Topped with sesame oil, sesame seeds and spring onion.